Mod_rewrite doesn't work for a url beginning in % (percent sign)

Question

There are several links pointing to a site I manage in which the webmaster mistakenly included a space between the domain name and the page name:

    www.domain.com/ page.html

When the user clicks, this gives

    www.domain.com/%20page.html

I'd like to use mod_rewrite to redirect hits to the incorrect address to the correct address, but my rewrite rule is not working. I have tried the following without success:

    rewriterule ^\%20page.html$ /page.html [R=301,L]
    rewriterule ^.20page.html$ /page.html [R=301,L]

How can I write a rule to catch this address? I'd like to keep the PageRank and not be penalized for a broken link, and I can't get the webmaster to fix his links.

Answer 1

Put the space in your RewriteRule. Probably by the time mod_rewrite sees it, it's been decoded.

Answer 2

Use a literal space, escaped with a backslash so it doesn't end the regular expression:

RewriteRule ^\ page.html$ /page.html [R=301,L]

Answer 3

You could use something like this to remove all control characters:

RewriteRule ^([^\x00-\x19\x7F]*)[\x00-\x19\x7F]+(.*) /$1$2 [L,R=301]

And for your additional space character:

RewriteRule ^([^\x00-\x20\x7F]*)[\x00-\x20\x7F]+(.*) /$1$2 [L,R=301]